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Yippy. Looks just like the Bloomberg tower. Anyway, the stretch of sixth from 34th to 23rd is now one of the blandest, most sterile, boring stretches in the city.
It literally had more flavor WITH the parking lots, and that's quite something to say! Most people have absolutely no reason to ever go there unless they are one of the new residents.
I wouldn't mind the banal and tacky looking towers if the development at street level would have been acceptable. No, the streetlife has been destroyed and removed. Some of the buildings should have been FORCED to contribute to maintaining and developing a sense of place, instead of creating a joyless corridor between real neighborhoods. FORCED to accommodate the florists and other businesses they displaced with bank branches. They could have preserved the elements that gave the area life, charm, and a unique identity and still developed up to the sky to make their money.
There is no coordination, no thought, no neighborhood planning in New York anymore, just pigs at the trough and this stretch of Sixth is exhibit #1.

Now they'll add another bland tower with a grotesque base and an indoor mall filled with the same 20 chain stores you see everywhere else. Yay.

Istar FM Loans has filed a foreclosure suit in New York State Supreme Court against developers Yitzchak Tessler and Meyer and Jacob Chetrit after the investors allegedly defaulted on a $105.3 million loan to develop a mixed-use tower near Herald Square.

In March 2007, Tessler Developments and the Chetrit Group entered into a loan agreement with Fremont Investment & Loan to acquire 855 Sixth Avenue, a site near 31st Street. The loan was part of a massive portfolio that Fremont, one of the nation's largest subprime lenders, sold to Manhattan-based Istar Financial.

Chetrit Group acquired 855 Sixth Avenue as part of the $140 million purchase of several office buildings from Baruch Singer in March 2007. Meyer and Jacob are two of the five brothers who operate the Chetrit Group.

Chetrit and Tessler hired architect Costas Kondylis to design the 632,000-square-foot project, which was set to include up to 240,000 square feet of retail space, more than 10 floors of office space, up to three floors of parking and residential condominiums. The developers planned to complete the construction by 2010.

Winick Realty was named the exclusive leasing agent for the new building, however it remains unclear whether Winick found any new anchor tenants for the site. In 2007, Winick officials said the site would include 21,000 square feet of retail space on the lower level as well as the ground floor, and 30,000 square feet on the second floor.

Officials at Winick, which was not named in the suit, declined to comment.

Court records show the original loan maturity date as April 1, 2008, however that original date was extended by six months to October 1, 2008. Istar said it warned of a default in an October 3 letter and then declared a default by mail two weeks later.

Istar says the default includes a $101.49 million principal balance, $962,868 in interest, default interest of $1.4 million and an exit fee of $2.1 million. Court records show an additional $2.4 million is owed in personal guarantees from Tessler and the two Chetrits.

Neither officials at the Chetrit Group nor Tessler Developments was available for comment.

Kondylis, construction firm Pavarini McGovern and consultants George Langer Associates Consulting and Environmental Consulting and Management, each had mechanic’s liens against the property and were therefore named as defendants in the suit, according to court records.

Well given current economic condition getting 2 out of 3 on sixth avenue is not bad, plus we are still getting the two with the most impact (>500ft)on the lower midtown skyline. This bldg(855) was slated to be less than 500 ft.